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June 26, 2009

G73: Red Sox 4, Atlanta 1

David Ortiz broke up a pitchers' duel by clubbing his 8th dong of the year in the fifth. Jurrjens came in with a 90 mph fastball on the inner half and Flo cranked it to deep right-center.

Beckett (7-6-0-0-6, 98 (69 strikes)) was superb. He was never really in any trouble. Atlanta had a guy at third in the third, but there were two outs at the time and Beckett got Chipper Jones looking. Beckett allowed two singles to start the fourth, but got the next three hitters in order.

Boston scored in the sixth when Dustin Pedroia doubled, took third on a balk and scored on J.D. Drew's groundout.

Hideki Okajima pitched the eighth. He committed a fielding error, then walked Martin Prado, but rallied and struck out Jones, Garret Anderson and Casey Kotchman (who had been 3-for-3 against Beckett).

Jonathan Papelbon allowed a solo home run to Dan Ross in the ninth and surrendered a two-out double to pinch-hitter Brian McCann, but fanned Gregor Blanco to give the Red Soix their 45th win -- best in the AL and only two fewer than the Dodgers.

Boston added two insurance runs in the eighth. Jurrjens began the inning having thrown 83 pitches. He walked Nick Green, who was bunted over to second by pinch-hitter Julio Lugo. Pedroia singled to center and Green's run made it 3-0. Bobby Cox had Rafael Soriano warming in the pen, but stayed with Jurrjens (97 pitches and obviously tiring) as he gave up a single to Drew, balked (again) to move the runners up, and walked Kevin Youkilis. Ball four went to the backstop -- FY scored and Drew took third. Yook got greedy and tried to advance to second, but he was tagged out 2-4-3 trying to get back to first. Jurrjens then threw another eight pitches to retire Jason Bay.

It was mind-boggling. Cox let Jurrjens throw 31 pitches in the eighth inning -- and sat on his ass as his young starter had a mini-meltdown while throwing his second-highest pitch total of the season (he threw 120 back on April 17 (log)).

Dave Magadan, who was ejected from Wednesday's game in Washington for arguing balls and strikes, has been suspended by MLB/Yankee Bob for one game (which will be served tonight) and fined an undisclosed amount of money.

Ofer, sorry I didn't get it! I just was having a hard time making the connection. Books are generally my best anxiety reliever and escape, but on planes, I am too anxious to read (without xanax). And with xanax, I find I am better off just listening to music and doing crossword puzzles.